In order to handle the expected increases in air traffic and congestion, the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) will introduce aircraft trajectory-based operations that require aircraft to follow custom-made so-called four-dimensional (4D) trajectories consisting of a specified path along-path time conformance requirements. This promotes prescribing and accurately following trajectories that ensure separation and optimize traffic flow management over different time horizons, which will significantly improve flight safety and performance. Thus, required time of arrival (RTA) and speed constraints are introduced to help guarantee the reliability of time of arrival at a particular waypoint to manage spacing between aircraft, minimize delays, and the like.
However, the RTA constraints, speed constraints and other altitude-based speed restrictions that may be provided by airport procedures, air traffic control (ATC), or the like typically do not account for operating costs. For example, the particular cost function utilized by a particular aircraft operator may define an optimum speed for achieving a desired cost index given the particular altitude of the aircraft and potentially other factors (e.g., the current fuel remaining or aircraft weight, current meteorological conditions, and the like). Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method for managing speed constraints or other constraints pertaining to temporal operations in a manner that accounts for operating costs. Other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.